Composite Structure Diagram has been added in JUDE/Professional 3.1. Finally, we have started supporting Import Java 5.0 (Generics have not been supported yet and will be imported as normal classes). Generics will be supported in the near feature.

Now, JUDE provides API for Class and UseCase diagrams and Mind Map. Collaboration function is also available with JUDE/Server3.1.

There were over 70 sessions regarding Ajax and Web 2.0. Developers,researchers and investors were gathering from all over the world.

I attended interesting sessions such as Keynote byJesse James Garrett who named "Ajax" (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML),"Designing for Ajax" by Bill Scott at Yahoo! and so on.

In several sessions, I have heard about user communities (myspace, YouTube, etc.)were very active in the world. Definitely, they are changing theworld of the Web! According to the venture capitalist's view, "mixi"(Japanese user community) is also gaining the public attention.

Some companies (Laszlo Systems, Nexaweb, JackBe, etc.) madepresentations and showed demos of Ajax applications. These companieswill help us to speed up our development by providing Ajax platforms and services.

During the conference, I have talked with over 40 people from all overthe world (UK, China, India, Singapore, Korea, Japan and across the United States). It was a pleasure to meet a devoted JUDE fan from Singapore.

Today I talked with Matz("the" ruby language designer) in XP Fiesta 2006 Kansai and discussed for a few minutes commonality of Ruby and Agile. Both of us were invited yesterday as speakers of the fiesta.

Ruby is categorized as a light weight language, dynamic language or "P language(with long tail)". Agile software development approaches are also formerly called "Light Weight Methodologies", and changed its umbrella name to "Agile" so to directly express positive properties. Then why not call Ruby an "Agile Language?"

Agile software development values; Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan

These four values can be translated as follows from the language viewppoint.

Languages should be human-oriented, human-friendly. Languages should guide programmers to readable code (as a substitution of document) Language specification should be consistent and hospitable. (collaboration of programmers and a language over contract between them) Languages should embrace change.

He is a ruby programmer as well as a developer of Kikaineko-Mocker, a TDD tool which generates mock objects from tests.

Maz and I agreed that programming and software development are both "human activities" which affects each other. Agile and Ruby both value "having fun" in the activity as a Life-hack!

I picked up five BOI's; Addison-Wesley XP series, Agile Project Management Signature series, Pragmatic Bookshelf, Microsoft Professional, Prentice Hall, and Japan. In the XP-Fiesta I printed this mind map in a very large piece of paper and posted on the wall, and vote "which book do you like best" by dot stickers. Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt's "Pragmatic Programmers" got the most points, and Ruby books were popular.

Kent Beck, Cynthia Andres and their family visited our company Change Vision, Inc in their last visit to Japan! Here's a funny picture of them and our TRICHORD(our product, an Agile Getting-Project-Done tool) team. The left half(including Kent) is doing "X", and the right(including Cynthia) is doing "P."Funny, isn't it !?

When we took pictures we said "Say Cheese", but Jojo(one of the daughters) said, "Stincky Socks", Why stincky socks !?

JUDE/Think! is a mind map tool to visualize objectives, speed up thinking processes and ideas, leading to new inspiration and results. It can be used for taking minutes, making a project plan, planning an event, and so on.

Let's take a look! An evaluation version is free of charge for 20 days.

I really liked this book because it is the first book for retrospective practitioners in the Agile context with lots of insightes and tips in it!(Yes, of course, I like Norm Kerth's bible of Retrospectives, and Jean Takaba's Collaboration book, too. )

In this book, the author divides the session into five phases and provides concrete named activities for each phase(this is the greatest thing of the book).

In Agile Development Conference 2003 and 2004, I participated in Linda Rising and Mary Lynn Manns's retrospective workshop, and also Diana Larsen's and Rachel Davies's. And I remember Jean Takaba introduced to me Sam Kaner's wonderful facilitator's guide book. They are all in the bibliography of this book!

I attached a *personal* Mind Map of the book, please enjoy (click to magnify)